This Other Eden by Paul Harding starts in 1792 when Benjamin Honey and his wife found an isolated island called Magalia, where they started their family. Benjamin was formerly an enslaved man, but he got an opportunity to begin a new life on the island. After settling down with his wife, Benjamin raised his children, and many other generations followed.
More than a century later, Benjamin's descendants lived in poverty because of inadequate food, medical care, and other essential services. The families on the island were isolated and desperate because they did not get any support from the mainland authorities. In 1912, Malaga Island started seeing the light at the end of the tunnel when Mathew, a retired and optimist schoolteacher became a missionary and started empowering his people. Mathew opened schools and started educating the local children. The presence of Mathew on Malaga Island attracted the government's attention from the mainland.
The novel concludes with the progressive members of government using eugenic thinking to evacuate the people vehemently from Malaga Island to institutionalize them. The government-hidden agenda was to develop Malaga Island into a holiday destination. Paul Harding shows readers how governments can suppress their people to achieve their selfish gains.
